Tracker-mouthpiece and accenting device for automatic music-playing instruments.



,0. S. BURTON. TRACKER MOUTHPIEOE AND AGOENTING- DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIG MUSIC PLAYING INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED JAILB, 1908.

Patented Ju1y"12, 1910.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES S. BURTON, OF OAK PARK, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MELVILLE CLARK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

TRACKER-MOUTHPIECE AND ACCENIING DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC MUSIC-PLAYING INSTRUMENTS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CrIARLEs S. BURTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oak Park, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in Tracker-hllouthpieces and Accenting Devices for Automatic Music- Playing Instruments, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the drawings, forming a part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide an improved tracker mouth-piece adapted. for accomplishing several purposes in connection with automatic music-playing instruments, prominent among which is accenting or specializing selected notes of the music, as, for example, those constituting the melody. The device as-characterized in this invention is also adapted to produce sostenuto eflect in automatic music instrument playing; and it is also adapted to remedy the defect consisting in the inaccurate registrations of the controlling sheet with the tracker mouth due to the contraction and expansion of the paper constituting such controlling sheets.

In the drawings :Figure l is an eleva tion showing a tracker mouthpiece and perforated controller sheet cooperating there with having features which constitute this invention, the controller sheet being in part broken away, and the tracker mouthpiece being also in part broken away. Fi 2 is a front elevation or edge view of a modified tracker mouth-piece shown diagrammatically in relation to the mouth-piece, and controller sheet of Fig. 1. Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing a modification in the controller sheet. Fig. 4- is a detail section of the tracker board at the line 4llon Fig. l.

The characteristic feature of this invention, so far as it relates to the tracker, consists in the construction of the mouth piece, A, or apertured edge element of the tracker board or duct board, 13. This tracker mouth piece has the months for the tracker ducts consisting or" slots, (1, which extend obliquely with respect to the direction of travel of the paper, as for example at about an angle of 45 degrees thereto, each slot occupying a portion of the length of the tracker board equal. to the full distance between centers of Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 8, 1908.

Patented July 12, 1910.

Serial No. 409,809.

ing drawn in the direction of travel of the controller sheet through the extreme righthand points of the respective slots, each such line will touch the extreme lett-hand point of the slot next adjacent to the one through whose extreme right-hand point it is drawn. These slots may be made in a strip of metal constituting the mouth piece, A, as described, which may be mounted upon the edge of the tracker board or duct board, B, in which the ducts, b, may be formed in the usual manner opening in a straight line, each duct under or behind one of the oblique slots, a, of the mouth piece, so that the uncovering of the slot, a, of the mouth piece at any point in its length will admit air to the tracker duct, 6, for controlling the pneumatic action of the instrument. The controller sheet, C, has the apertures for the notes which are not to be emphasized or specialized not wider, preferably, than about half the distance between centers of the slots, a, and cut in lines situated with respect to the means for gaging the paper in its path over the tracker board, so that the leading ends of such slots will reach and register with the oblique slot, a, at the farther ends of the latter.

It will be seen that it any particular aperture as c is laterally displaced from the above described positionto the right as the slots are shown sloped in the drawing it will reach and register with the slot, a, at the nearer end of the latter, and that the air will thereby be admitted to the tracker duct through such laterally displaced pertoration as much sooner than the air is admitted to the other slots for the same chord by the registration of their remote ends with the corresponding apertures as the length of time required by the paper for moving between the two registering positions over the belt or none of said oblique tracker mouths. At any convenient points in the tracker board, preferably at the ends, supplemental mouth piece slots, (4*, are provided, and the controller sheet may have supplemental apertures, 0. These supplemental apertures, 0, will be situated so as to reach the supplei'nental mouth piece slots, 64*, at the nearer end of the latter,that is, substantially at the same time that the apertures, 0 reach their the slot-s, so that a series of parallel lines he i respective tracker mouth -slots.

It may be understood that the ducts from the tracker mouth, a, lead to pneumatically controlled devices for operating tone or stroke modifying devices of the instrument, and that when the supplemental apertures, c, register with the supplemental tracker duct months, (P, these tone or stroke modifying devices will be operated, and that all notes which are struck at that instant will be subject to this modification, which, for the purpose of emphasizing the melody, will be an intensification. Only the note or notes in a chord which are to be specialized will be offset or have their leading ends offset so as to reach the nearer end of the oblique tracker mouth slots, and these notes only will be subject to the modification of tone, the aperture, 0, pass'ng by the tracker mouth slot, (4, and putting out of service the tone or stroke modifying devices by the time the remaining apertures, 2, pertaining to the same chord reach the farther ends of their respective tracker mouth slots. In Fig. 1. 1 have shown the exceptional or specialized tlDGltItlQS c in the perforated sheet offsetodily laterally to reach the nearer end of the oblique tracker mouth slots, but the same effect will be produced by merely jutting off the leading end of the slot an equal amount latera ly. Such construction is shown in Fig. 3, and is the preferred form at least because it is the form in which paper can be more easily prepared without special perforating machines, the apertures 0 being first cut in their normal position and then having the lateral offset, c formed at their leading end.

It will be obvious that when the tone modifying devices are of such character that the modification must continue throughout the entire chord after it is once affected, the unemphasized notes must be first struck before the tone modifying devices are operated, and that in such case the specialized apertures for the melody and the supple mental apertures for operating the tone modifying devices must be offset in such direction as to reg ster with the more remote instead of the nearer ends of their respective oblique tracker mouth slots, and the normal or regular position of the slots for playing the unspecialized notes will therefore be such as to cause them to register with the nearer instead of the more remote ends of their respective tracker mouth slots. Since the difference in this respect will be in the construction of the instrument as to the nature of the tone modifying devices it is preferable that the difference should be altogether in the instrument, and that no difference should be required in the controlling sheet, and therefore for such instruments the tracker mouth piece will have its slots cut sloping in the opposite direction, as shown in Fig. 2. The same perforated sheets in that case will. operate with the desired effect upon instruments having either type of tone modifying devices.

The tracker mouth piece above described, having the mouths consisting of oblique slots, is adapted to serve two additional purposes with ordinarily cut note sheets. he first of these purposes is to remedy the defect due to contraction and expansion of the paper constituting the controlling sheet. By reason of the fact that there is no waste portion of the length of the tracker board,- that is, that at no point in its length can a perforation of the paper cross the board without registering at some point in its path with a tracker duct mouth, and that not more than half of the unit distance, that is, the distance between centers of the tracker n1ouths,-is required for the width of the controller sheet apertures, a contraction and expansion of the paper sufficient to displace the most affected apertures from three-fourths to seven-eighths of one full diameter or width of the unit may occur without preventing them from operating properly, (with the exception hereafter mentioned) because the slot thus displaced, lapping on the corner of the proper tracker duct mouth adequately to cause action therethrough, laps too little 011 the opposite corner of the next duct mouth to cause action through the latter. The exception noted is that if the paper is at normal or average condition as to expansion and contraction, gaged so that the perforations cross the tracker duct months at the 111iddle points of the latter, a change in the width of the paper which causes the apertures to cross the months at one side or the other of the middle point will delay or hasten the sound ing of the note, but so slightly that the effect is not ordinarily perceptible; and it has only the effect of rendering the sound of the music somewhat more human, because such slight inaccuracies as it causes are not greater than those which occur in hand playing, and which to some extent distinguish hand playing from automatic playing. The second additional purpose served by the oblique tracker duct months is that two notes following each other in the music and which it is desired to run together for sostenuto effect may be thus played by cutting the aperture for the second of the two notes in the same manner as shown for an accented note,that is, so that it will reach the nearer end of the slot and will thus begin to sound before the preceding note has left the farther end of its slot. The apertures, c and 0, illustrate the use of this expedient for sostenuto effect, the aperture, 0, being normal or regular in its formation and position, and the aperture, 0 for the note which is to follow, having its leading end offset to reach the nearer end of its tracker mouth slot before the terminal end of the aperture, 0, has left its tracker mouth slot. It will be understood that each of these two additional uses of the oblique-mouthed tracked board described requires suitably perforated note sheets, and when such board is used for the purpose first described,viz., selection of melody notes, so much of the range of the slots longitudinally of the board due to their obliquity as is utilized for this purpose is not available at the same time, for compensating for expansion and contraction, but the same board is adapted to serve each of these purposes separately.

I claim 1. In an automatic music-playii'ig instrument, a tracker mouth piece having duct months in the form of slots trending obliquely across the range of the mouth piece.

2. In an automatic music-playing instrument, a tracker mouth piece having the tracker duct mouths in the form of slots, each of which trends obliquely across the range and occupies a portion lengthwise thereof equal to the distance between centers of the slots.

3. In an automatic music-playing instrument, in combination, a tracker board hav ing its tracker mouths in the form of slots trending obliquely across the tracker range, and having a supplemental duct and mouth therefor designed for communication with tone or stroke modifying devices; a perforated note sheet having its apertures for the notes which are not to be specialized situated for registering with the tracker duct months at one end thereof respectively, and having apertures for notes which are to be specialized cut with their leading ends in position for registration with the other end of their respective tracker duct mouths, such note sheet having also a supplemental aperture for registering with the mouth of the supplemental duct of the tracker out of time with the apertures for unspecialized notes and in time corresponding with the registration of the leading end of the apertures for specialized notes.

In an automatic music-playing instrument, in combination with a tracker board having its duct months in the form of slots trending obliquely across the tracker range, and having a supplemental duct and mouth designed for controlling tone modifying devices, a perforated note sheet having apertures for the notes which are not to be specialized situated in position for registering their leading ends with the same ends of the oblique tracker mouths, and having apertures for the notes which are to be specialized also cut as to the body of the aperture in similar relation to the tracker duct months, but having the leading end offset laterally for registering with the other end of the oblique tracker mouth, and having a supplemental aperture situated for coinci dent registration with the mouth of the supplemental duct.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of two witnesses, at Chicago, Illinois, this 3d day of July,

CHARLES S. BURTON. In the presence of M. GERTRUDE ADY, J. S. ABBOTT. 

